Water Margin people

"Master Lu, why are you here?"

Sun Lei looked at Lu Zhishen and asked.

"Brother, are you going to ask me to go out for training?"

Lu Zhishen stared at Sun Lei and asked.

"You are a privy councilor after all. What's wrong with you going out to train the troops? Don't you want to train?"

Sun Lei did not deny that this was his idea.

"With so many new recruits, won't I be able to do anything?"

Lu Zhishen continued.

"What are you going to do? Rob a bunch of beauties? Practice Joy Zen? Or become a bandit and rob houses?"

Sun Lei looked at Lu Zhishen and asked.

"I don't do those dirty things!"

Lu Zhishen waved his hand and said that he was very dissatisfied with Sun Lei's speculation. He was not that kind of person.

"Since you don't do these things, why don't you want to lead the new soldiers? As a Privy Councilor, do you really do nothing?"

Sun Lei looked at Lu Zhishen and asked.

"I just don't want to bring so many new recruits. This will seriously slow down the process. If I go there, I will have to wait until next year."

Lu Zhishen said dissatisfiedly that there were 15,000 new recruits among the 20,000 troops. Not to mention the marching speed, even supply along the way was a big problem.

"That's about right. You can take it over and hand it over to Wu Yong, and let him manage Byzantium!"

Sun Lei said.

"Have I been fooled?"

Lu Zhishen felt that he had been fooled. It seemed that he shouldn't have said that he wanted to go out for a walk.

"What's wrong with you doing some work as a privy councilor? What fooled you?"

Sun Lei emphasized again that a privy councilor was unwilling to lead troops, what did this mean? Collecting empty salaries?

"I'll take it, but there are too many!"

Lu Zhishen expressed his thoughts, he thought that taking a few thousand would be enough.

"It's not that much. I've prepared 5,000 veterans for you. You don't actually have to do anything."

Sun Lei looked at Lu Zhishen and said, he is not only asked to lead new recruits, there are so many veterans, and there are people to solve all the problems.

Lu Zhishen had no choice but to sit aside. When he saw wine on the table, he took the jug and started drinking.

"You're not going back?"

Sun Lei looked at Lu Zhishen and asked.

"I feel upset and don't want to go back!"

Lu Zhishen said.

"I'm going to inspect the local area. Are you sure you want to come with me?"

Sun Lei said.

"It's not like I haven't been there before, what are you afraid of?"

Lu Zhishen replied.

"I'm going to Yangzhou to clean up the skinny horse industry!"

Sun Lei looked at Lu Zhishen and said.

"What did you say?"

Lu Zhishen’s eyes widened. He knew what a skinny horse was!

"Why are you staring at me? It wasn't me who did it!"

Sun Lei was speechless. Lu Zhishen's damn sense of justice reappeared and his fists were clenched so hard that they made a crackling sound.

"Who did this dirty thing?"

Lu Zhishen looked at Sun Lei and asked.

"How would I know? I received a report letter and thought I'd go check it out when I had nothing to do! Jiangnan is still in trouble. The clan power is hard to suppress. The officials sent there all said it's very difficult to deal with."

Sun Lei shook his head.

"Difficult? I'll do it!"

Lu Zhishen slammed his fist on the table. He wished he could beat those people to death.

"What are you going to do? It's not against the law!"

Sun Lei spread his hands and said, "What do you mean by not breaking the law? Aren't you the law?"

Lu Zhishen looked at Sun Lei and said, "An emperor says that being evil is not against the law?"

"Don't talk nonsense! What do you mean I am the law? The law is the law! I am the emperor, but I have to do things according to the law. If I take the lead in trampling on the law, who will obey the law?"

Sun Lei looked at Lu Zhishen and said.

"You don't understand how those people operate. They select beautiful girls from remote areas, train them until they reach a certain age, and then sell them to wealthy businessmen!"

"Of course they don't dare to buy a girl before she reaches adulthood, because the law has regulations! As for the sale, they also do it in the form of a gift, just like a rich businessman taking a concubine!"

"As for whether there are other dirty operations, I don't know."

Sun Lei explained the details.

"So? As a concubine?"

Lu Zhishen frowned. It seemed that this was not illegal at all. Everything was just on the edge of the law.

"That's why it's so troublesome! The custom of favoring boys over girls in those remote areas is so difficult to change."

Sun Lei sighed. He has been working to improve the social status of women and has been committed to promoting women to earn money through normal labor, but the dregs of thousands of years cannot be changed in a day or two.

"What should I do?"

Lu Zhishen looked at Sun Lei and asked.

"You can do it, right? It's up to you!"

Sun Lei looked at Lu Zhishen and said.

"I smashed their shops, ransacked their homes, and twisted off their heads!"

Lu Zhishen talked about his own method.

"Great! Incredible!"

Sun Lei said speechlessly that he shouldn't have had too high hopes for Lu Zhishen.

The ship sailed south along the canal and soon arrived near Yangzhou.

"Okay, let's disguise ourselves! Get off the boat!"

Sun Lei looked at Lu Zhishen and said.

Everyone dressed up and became businessmen. Sun Lei was even wearing gold and silver, and had a gold chain as thick as a thumb around his neck.

"How is it? Looks like he has money, right?"

Sun Lei showed off in front of Lu Zhishen, saying that he was dressed like a rich man.

"Nondescriptive, how can there be someone like you?"

Lu Zhishen shook his head. Even rich people didn't dress like Sun Lei. He wore seven or eight rings and thumb rings on his hands, two belts, one gold and one jade, with jade pendants hanging all over them. Even his boots were inlaid with gold and jade, not to mention the exaggerated frog-eye glasses and big gold chain.

"That's what a nouveau riche is. That's the kind of client they want! You, a big monk, don't understand anything! Also, you can't dress like that. You have to look like a fancy monk!"

Sun Lei looked at Lu Zhishen and said.

After hearing this, Lu Zhishen took off his shirt and revealed the tattoos on his body.

"Fuck, please stop being disgusting. Do you want me to laugh at my newly-raised aura? I want you to dress like a frivolous monk... the kind who practices the Zen of Joy!"

Sun Lei knew that Lu Zhishen didn't understand, so he made it clear directly.

"What is this Happy Zen? I don't see that filthy thing!"

Lu Zhishen was furious, saying that joyful Zen was not a good thing.

"Pretend! Do you understand? If you don't pretend, how can you get into the bad guys' group and catch them all in one fell swoop!"

Sun Lei glared at Lu Zhishen.

Only then did Lu Zhishen reluctantly go to change his clothes.

Soon, Lu Zhishen appeared in a shiny and luxurious monk's robe that looked like a red envelope.

"It's interesting! It's interesting!"

Sun Lei was very satisfied with Lu Zhishen's costume, which was completely indistinguishable from the real thing.

"You're dressed so awkwardly!"

Lu Zhishen didn't like this kind of gorgeous monk's robe at all. The fine monk's robe was embroidered with gold and silver threads, and hung with some thin gold chains and gold bells, which made noises when he walked.

"Just face it, we brothers are here to attract attention, so that those people can recognize us as rich people at a glance!"

Sun Lei said with a smile that he didn't have time to investigate slowly. He had to make a name for himself once he entered the city, so that everyone in that industry would know of his arrival. (End of this chapter)